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1 – 10 of over 3000Jas Kalra, Michael Lewis and Jens K. Roehrich
This paper aims to investigate governance in service triads, specifically studying significant steering and connecting coordination failures, to reveal typically hidden…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate governance in service triads, specifically studying significant steering and connecting coordination failures, to reveal typically hidden characteristics and consequences.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on coordination functions and activities between a buyer (a government department), a customer (a military service) and two service providers. Rich data on these normally confidential service ties are drawn from an official report into the causes of a fatal accident involving a UK reconnaissance aircraft and specifically from the evidence presented regarding the earlier development of its complex safety case. The authors also analysed a range of additional secondary data sources.
Findings
The authors examine the sources, drivers and manifestation of coordination failures. The authors uncover a series of coordination failures driven from the bridge position, revealing that while bounded rationality and opportunism influenced steering coordination failures, connecting coordination failures were associated with knowledge asymmetry, dyadic inertia and unethical practices.
Practical implications
Organisations and governments delivering complex projects and knowledge-intensive professional services should guard against outsourcing the “coordination” activity to a third party, thereby relinquishing the bridge position. Handing over the bridge position to an integrator would leave the client vulnerable to coordination dysfunctions such as bounded rationality, opportunism, knowledge asymmetry, dyadic inertia and unethical practices.
Originality/value
The study links the previously separate research streams of service triads and inter-organizational coordination. While extant research pays attention to mainly positive control functions, this study focuses on all three actors in two (failed) service triads – and highlights the impact of coordination activities and failures.
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To show how e‐learning has contributed to organizational learning.
Abstract
Purpose
To show how e‐learning has contributed to organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The article explores how BAE Systems has used a virtual university to develop learning opportunities for its staff.
Findings
Cost savings have flowed from using e‐learning as well e‐learning extending the reach of learning activity.
Practical implications
The article shows how e‐learning can be put into practice and the value of an organization‐wide approach.
Originality/value
The article will be of value to company trainers and developers who are looking at the use of e‐learning.
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Magnus Mähring, Jonny Holmström, Mark Keil and Ramiro Montealegre
This study investigates the potential of actor‐network theory (ANT) for theory development on information technology project escalation, a pervasive problem in contemporary…
Abstract
This study investigates the potential of actor‐network theory (ANT) for theory development on information technology project escalation, a pervasive problem in contemporary organizations. In so doing, the study aims to contribute to the current dialogue on the potential of ANT in the information systems field. While escalation theory has been used to study “runaway” IT projects, two distinct limitations suggest a potential of using ANT: First, there is a need for research that builds process theory on escalation of IT projects. Second, the role of technology as an important factor (or actor) in the shaping of escalation has not been examined. This paper examines a well‐known case study of an IT project disaster, the computerized baggage handling system at Denver International Airport, using both escalation theory and ANT. A theory‐comparative analysis then shows how each analysis contributes differently to our knowledge about dysfunctional IT projects and how the differences between the analyses mirror characteristics of the two theories. ANT is found to offer a fruitful theoretical addition to escalation research and several conceptual extensions of ANT in the context of IT project escalation are proposed: embedded actor‐networks, host actor‐networks, swift translation and Trojan actor‐networks.
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Christopher Durugbo and John Ahmet Erkoyuncu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of industrial service uncertainties and the approaches for mitigating these uncertainties. The paper also sheds light on how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of industrial service uncertainties and the approaches for mitigating these uncertainties. The paper also sheds light on how the interplay of potential uncertainties due to service operation challenges shapes the decisiveness of product-centric businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
To better understand how industrial firms mitigate uncertainties of industrial service provision by their supply chains, the authors adopted a qualitative multi-case logic methodology. The approach is based on a research model of uncertainty avoidance and uncertainty reduction which the authors applied in an exploratory study with three major multi-national firms in the aerospace industry: BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce.
Findings
From the analysis, the authors found that to mitigate industrial service uncertainty, there is a need for aftermarket-oriented organisation, audit-oriented governance, relationship-oriented intelligence and lifecycle-oriented contracts. The authors also found that value uncertainty originating from unpredictability in client needs and project scope and structural uncertainty caused by volatility and variability of business structures are also important quandaries in decision making situations of firms towards their supply chains for industrial services.
Originality/value
The paper makes two useful contributions. First, it provides an assessment of the nature of uncertainty within operations for providing industrial services. Second, the paper identifies orientations for industrial service uncertainty mitigation. Whereas product-centric businesses firms tend to vary in their states for uncertainty avoidance and reduction, the work suggest similar orientations for uncertainty mitigation across these firms.
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Mostafa Jazayeri, Danture Wickramsinghe and Tharusha Gooneratne
The purpose of this paper is to report on two institutional change scenarios of performance measurement (PM) systems, namely, subversion and integration. Subversion represents…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on two institutional change scenarios of performance measurement (PM) systems, namely, subversion and integration. Subversion represents insiders' use of existing institutional logic whereas integration represents insiders' use of imported institutional logic.
Design/methodology/approach
The scenarios are drawn from two case studies: BAE Systems (a large UK manufacturing company) and Alpha (a medium‐sized Sri Lankan manufacturing company). The data were collected through in‐depth interviews and documentary sources.
Findings
An internal “culture change programme” led to a business value scorecard (BVS) in BAE Systems, and an external knowledge diffusion programme gave rise to a balanced scorecard (BSC) in Alpha. The culture change programme was facilitated by a particular institutional logic resulting in a successful BVS practice. In contrast, at Alpha, the BSC project was externally imposed, although it was designed with the blessing of the owner‐manager. This triggered internal controversies and the workforce became unreceptive. Consequently, attention was diverted to other management fads such as total quality management, Six Sigma, and enterprise resource planning but these were also short lived.
Research limitations/implications
While this paper provides evidence on practice variation and adds to neoinstitutional‐based management accounting research, the empirical materials, however, did not allow the authors to trace all four scenarios in the typology.
Practical implications
PM systems, such as the BSC, seem to be malleable and adaptable to local requirements subject to organisational and managerial flexibility and democratic possibilities.
Originality/value
This research highlights how the institutional environment is fragmented and contested, in different organisational and political conditions and spaces, resulting in variation in practices.
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